International adoption processes vary greatly from country program to country program (and even between different agencies). Even so, there are some steps and parts that are fairly similar throughout most international adoption programs, so I thought I’d share our adoption timeline to give you an idea of what happens/might happen throughout the process.

When we first became serious about adopting, we went to an informational meeting with our agency in June 2009. Later that month, we turned in our pre-application with our very basic information. In return, we were sent a very large packet that contained our full application.

Over the next month or so, we put together our application. This included filling out lots of detailed information; writing autobiographies; getting physicals and fingerprints; obtaining driving records; preparing applications for getting clearances; and copying marriage and birth certificates. Our completed application was about 85 pages long. (Just about the same length as my graduate school thesis!)

Once our application was reviewed and accepted, we attended a Pre-Adoption Class (PAC) in September 2009, where we completed 8 hours of parent education which covered topics that ranged from cross-cultural adoptive parenting to learning about possible medical issues that our children could be dealing with. All in all, it was a very informative class and I am so glad they require it of prospective adoptive parents.

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Shortly after our PAC, we began our homestudy process in early October 2009. A homestudy is pretty much what it sounds like: a study of your home and family, put together by a social worker from the adoption agency. We met with our social worker twice as a couple and we also met with her for individual interviews. One of the meetings took place in our home where our social worker took a tour of the house, taking note of where the baby’s room would be and also checking off fire safety regulations that we needed to have in place.

After our meetings, our social worker wrote up our homestudy. This took about 4 weeks and it was completed around Thanksgiving 2009 — our agency told us to expect about 4-6 weeks for this portion. We looked over our completed homestudy to ensure that everything was correct and then it was sent off to the agency in Korea!

From there, we waited for our referral of our child. The agency in Korea uses the homestudy (and some other information from the full application) as a profile of prospective parents and accordingly matches families with a child that is available for adoption.

When we were in process in 2009, the wait for a referral was about 4-6 months. Because we are of Korean heritage, we were given some priority (I believe the China and India programs also give priority to heritage families) and received a referral in about 3 months.

In late February 2010, we received a call from our program director telling us we had a son! She emailed us his profile and pictures and we first laid eyes on beautiful and sweet Lil’ CB…

We were elated and over the moon!

We looked over the referral and then brought it to our doctor and also emailed it to a doctor specializing in international adoption. After going through all the information in the referral, we submitted our acceptance paperwork to our agency, who then forwarded everything to Korea in early March 2010.

From there, we had to wait. And wait, and wait, and wait. This was definitely the HARDEST part of our adoption journey — knowing our son was growing up and on the other side of the world and having to wait until we could hold him in our arms.

During this time, there were a couple of things we needed to take care of on the US side of things, while the Korean agency also took care of some things with the Korean government. We needed to apply for an I600 with the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) — a form that petitions to legally bring home an orphan that is not a US citizen. On the Korea side, Lil’ CB needed to obtain a  Visa to travel to the US and also had to wait for an Emigration Permission (EP) to be able to leave the country. Korea has a quota of EPs that the government establishes every year. Once the quota is met, any children who did not make the cut off for the quota must wait until the follow year and so on. I believe the EP process is unique to Korea and I also think they are changing this process within the next few years.

Because of the backlog of other children waiting to come home and the time it takes to process everything, the wait for a child to be able to come home and join their families often becomes extended. When we initially began our application in June 2009, we were told that it would be about 4-6 months between referral and travel. In reality, this timeline increased and we ended up waiting nearly 10 months between referral and travel. The wait has now gone up to 12-15 months.

During our wait, our homestudy, which is valid for only one year, expired. So we spent the month of October 2010 renewing our homestudy. Thankfully, our fingerprints with USCIS (valid for 15 months) did not expire!

Finally (FINALLY!!!!), in mid-December 2010, we got the call that Lil’ CB had received his EP and Visa and was ready to come home! We packed our bags, headed to Seoul where we introduced to our 15 month-old son for the first time.

We spent a week in Seoul and then, just before Christmas, on December 20, 2010, we flew back home and landed in the US as a family of three, ready to begin our adventures with Lil’ CB!

We weren’t quite done yet, though! Over the next six months, we had post-placement visits with our social worker and after writing and submitting documents to our local court system, Lil’ CB became an American citizen and officially and legally became a part of our family in October 2011. So, if you were counting, it was roughly 26 months from the time of application submission until finalization…Phew!

Just like every birth story is different, every adoption story is also different. But, just as you can expect certain steps in most pregnancies, there are certain steps you can expect and need to fulfill throughout your international adoption experience. I hope this gave you a little insight on what happens during this long process!